What are the most difficult majors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Agree.

Female engineer here. I disagree. Engineering is very hard. Law school was a complete joke by comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever you are not good at is the hardest major for you. If you’re not good at math, STEM majors would likely be the most difficult for you. If you’re not good at reading, analysis, and writing, majors like English and history might be the most difficult for you.

If your major is *that* difficult, you are likely not in the best major for you.

This isn't true. Not all engineering majors couldn't hack it at English or History.

I vote electrical engineering as one of the hardest. Chemical and petroleum engineering are up there too.

But you're presuming that all English and history majors couldn't hack it as engineers?

Yup, pretty much.

Engineers can do reading, analysis, and writing. English and history majors can't do math.

The engineering major students whose papers I used to correct and edit sure as hell couldn't write to save their lives

[Anonymous]

The ones you suck at.

[Anonymous]

Most liberal arts majors if you can write you are set. You can easily bs your way through. If you can't write well they are hard

For hard sciences it's much harder to bs your way through. You actually have to know material but in that way it is similar to law school. Some people can pick it up naturally and others have to work really hard at memorizing material and doing problem sets

Plus most hard sciences are graded on a curve. If you are in the top half of the class you generally move forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Math at my school had varying degrees of difficulty based on the concentration/focus within the major. For instance, economics, cs, general applied, statistics, biology etc...

The top of the list as far a difficulty went to the pure math concentration. Basically theoretical underpinnings of all of the higher level topics using exclusively proofs to teach the material and using proofs to verify you knew the material. I don't think i did any calculations after my first semester of calculus. All just theoretical and very abstract. VERY smart people in my classes at the higher levels. And the professors teaching us, well, just indescribably beyond brilliant. Haven't met anyone at that level since.

FWIW, i'm now an actuary

I was a math major too, pure math track. That s**t was hard! But it seemed the gifted just cruised through things and got all the attention/adulation from the faculty. Guess that would happen with any academic discipline though. Used that stuff not one day on the job, but damn, it really taught me to think--and that is priceless!

[Anonymous]

Architecture
Applied & Engineering Physics
Chemical Engineering
Math (theoretical/BA)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever you are not good at is the hardest major for you. If you’re not good at math, STEM majors would likely be the most difficult for you. If you’re not good at reading, analysis, and writing, majors like English and history might be the most difficult for you.

If your major is *that* difficult, you are likely not in the best major for you.

This isn't true. Not all engineering majors couldn't hack it at English or History.

I vote electrical engineering as one of the hardest. Chemical and petroleum engineering are up there too.

But you're presuming that all English and history majors couldn't hack it as engineers?

Yup, pretty much.

Engineers can do reading, analysis, and writing. English and history majors can't do math.

The engineering major students whose papers I used to correct and edit sure as hell couldn't write to save their lives

Was this a top engineering school?

I used to write way more papers than my English major roommate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever you are not good at is the hardest major for you. If you’re not good at math, STEM majors would likely be the most difficult for you. If you’re not good at reading, analysis, and writing, majors like English and history might be the most difficult for you.

If your major is *that* difficult, you are likely not in the best major for you.

This isn't true. Not all engineering majors couldn't hack it at English or History.

I vote electrical engineering as one of the hardest. Chemical and petroleum engineering are up there too.

But you're presuming that all English and history majors couldn't hack it as engineers?

Yup, pretty much.

Engineers can do reading, analysis, and writing. English and history majors can't do math.

The engineering major students whose papers I used to correct and edit sure as hell couldn't write to save their lives

The history students whose papers I used to correct and edit also sure as hell couldn't write to save their lives. And they also sucked at math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Such a weird question OP. People are good at different things. So, for some people engineering is a breeze and for others they might think writing white papers is a breeze. Not everyone wants to be STEM<STEM, STEM. It's strange for people to presume those are necessarily difficult majors....different strokes for different folks.

I don’t know anyone who thought engineering was a breeze. In fact, usually engineering schools have lower cutoffs to make top 10% of the class because the average grades are lower.

This. Even the most brilliant people I studied with in engineering worked very hard. Very few people got As.

I get so tired of people acting like STEM majors had some innately magical talent for STEM. It’s actually just really hard work.

Nope. You have to be smart as well as hard-working. No amount of hard work will get a stupid person through a STEM program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Physicist. I never found the physics classes hard. The hardest classes for me were the ones which required a lot of memorization. My lowest grade in college was in Art Appreciation.

But that's because you didn't give a shit, and (unlike physics) there is no "right answer" in Art Appreciation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Uh huh. If math isn't hard, then why is there such a high attrition rate for men as well as women in STEM fields? Are the men being driven out by teh sexizm too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The belief that math, engineering, and the "hard sciences" (i.e., not biology?) are the most difficult is directly related to the fact that those are highly male-dominated fields. I was a female math major and I can tell you, math is not that hard. It is just regarded as such because of sexism.

Uh huh. If math isn't hard, then why is there such a high attrition rate for men as well as women in STEM fields? Are the men being driven out by teh sexizm too?

Because the work sucks.

[Anonymous]

Ancient languages

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Philosophy. It is one of the most difficult.

I remember my philosophy prof who told the class there are no right or wrong answers. Then he flunked half the class for wrong answers. Go figure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Philosophy. It is one of the most difficult.

I remember my philosophy prof who told the class there are no right or wrong answers. Then he flunked half the class for wrong answers. Go figure.

That doesn't mean there is no good or bad reasoning.